Wednesday, May 27, 2009

If It's Not One Thing...

Ok - we had the hurricane to start the year off. Swine flu panic and a flood day were up next. Somewhere in there, the pool flooded and ruined the gym floor yet again, so the gym has been torn up for several weeks. And today we had an unscheduled fire drill that was not a drill. Well it was sort of a drill for some of us.

We started final exams today, and we planned to give ours in science. In the middle of second period the fire alarm went off. Ruh roh! My second period is an upper level class, one that I have to tell them it is OK to talk sometimes. So they are diligently working on the exam when the alarm went off. Bright kids that they are, the first thing someone said was "This isn't scheduled is it?" They know that we don't do fire drills during TAKS, on exam days or on rainy days. Plus the puzzled look on my face was probably another clue.

We all head outside, but not after I have to give the "ultra nasty teacher look" to a 7th grader who thought it would be a great joke to push her friend while we were all crowded on the staircase going down. As we are standing outside I notice a flaming trash can on the sidewalk by the portable buildings and one of the AP's with a fire extinguisher on it. I tell the kids to have a seat on the ground that we will likely be there a while. After about 20 minutes we get the all clear to go back in. The bell for the next period has rung, so 2nd period kids just grab their stuff, turn in unfinished tests and go. We will finish tests tomorrow.

During the next period it was fun watching one of the 7th grade math classes outside with the AP, all students emptying their backpacks and pockets. Later I find out that 3-4 students in that class conspired to start the fire. One of them had a lighter, started some papers on fire and dropped them in the trash can. We were so lucky. Can't wait to see what happens to them.

We have five days left! Five! That is 2100 minutes of instructional time. We are having an egg drop or egg toss competition in our classes the last 4-5 days. That gives us 4 days to get all our grades done. I have started cleaning out my room and getting things ready to move. I still have a boatload to grade, but I am making headway. Where did May go???